Who’s he and the place did he come from?
He’s the delightfully named Henry Godbout, and whereas he seems like he comes from the pages of a Martin Amis novel, he really involves us from Brooklyn, New York by way of the College of Virginia. The Sox drafted him on Sunday with the seventy fifth general decide.
Even if he grew up in New York Metropolis, Godbout was raised a Red Sox fan by his New Englander father. That’s proper — we’ve acquired ourselves a reverse Ben Rice on our fingers! On the night time he was drafted, he even shared an image of his 3-year outdated self visiting Fenway in full Sox gear:
The truth that, even at age 3, he knew you may by no means go fallacious with a gentle serve twist bodes effectively for his baseball IQ.
What place does he play?
Hmmm, this might be an fascinating query. The Sox introduced him as a shortstop after they drafted him, which is a transparent indication of the place they intend to start out him. However Godbout was nearly completely a second baseman for the Cavs this 12 months and, by all accounts, he wasn’t a very nice one with the glove. He’s additionally not very speedy, with a big body that would portend the addition of much more muscle and weight as he develops, which doesn’t sound like a center infielder to me. I believe we’ll see him bounce across the diamond as he climbs the ladder.
Will he be any good?
He’s already excellent in a single essential a part of the sport: placing the bat on the ball. Not solely is it exceedingly uncommon that he strikes out (he did it simply 19 instances in 226 plate appearances this 12 months) it’s uncommon that he even swings and misses. He doesn’t have a ton of energy proper now (he hit 9 homers final 12 months and eight this 12 months), however he’s nonetheless including muscle to his 6”2’, 190-pound. body.
If every thing goes proper for him with the bat, he may find yourself as a man who pops 15-20 homers whereas placing the ball in play and taking loads of walks, not in contrast to a right-handed Masataka Yoshida. However that’s the best-case situation, not essentially the more than likely one.
Present me a cool spotlight.
Right here’s his 2025 spotlight reel. I’m no sunflower seed spittin’ scout, nevertheless it seems to be to me like he’s acquired a fast bat that stays within the zone for some time. His leg carry additionally reminds be a little bit of Yoshida’s.
What’s he doing in his image up there?
Practising the sneer he’ll give to any Yankee followers who give him shit when he returns to his hometown for the primary time as a giant leaguer and hits two residence runs in a one sport on Might 11, 2029.
When will he be on the Purple Sox?
Developmentally, he jogs my memory a little bit of Chase Meidroth within the sense that they’re each faculty hitters who entered the minors with superior approaches on the plate. What might sluggish Godbout down is his defensive improvement. And after this 12 months’s Kristian Campbell fiasco, the Sox could also be inclined to take extra time with gamers who don’t have pure defensive properties.
Count on him to start out in both Salem or Greenville later this season. From there, we would see him in Fenway by 2028 if issues go easily.
